This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 60/750,996 filed Dec. 16, 2005.
The present invention relates to conveyor belts and, more particularly, to a convertible track system for providing additional support to a conveyor belt.
Conveyor belts are used in many industrial applications. These conveyor belts ride upon tracks supported by a frame or other such structure. In turn, the tracks are typically supported by rod/spacer units extending between opposing portions of the frame. These rod/spacer units are positioned at predetermined locations along the path of the conveyor belt.
It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the conveyor belt associated with a particular apparatus may occasionally be changed due to reasons such as system repair, system upgrade, and/or system modification. For example, a system could be modified to replace a metal conveyor belt with a plastic conveyor belt. In such a modification, as in other modifications, it may be necessary to provide an additional track under the conveyor belt to ensure adequate support.
In prior art systems, the need to add a track to an existing system involves substantial time and effort. In particular, the known technique for adding an additional support track to an existing system involves disassembling the rod/spacer units from the frame of the system, installing the additional track with new spacers therebetween, reinstalling the rod/spacer units, and re-securing the tracks to the frame. This same process must be repeated if the additional support track needs to be removed from the system.
There is therefore a need in the art for a track system which allows an additional support track to be added/removed to a conveyor belt apparatus without disassembly of the existing track supporting structure.